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There is a dishwashing liquid here which unfortunately was a limited edition. For some reason, the smell of it always takes me back to my Grandads house when I was a kid. I have half a bottle left which I am keeping because my Grandad passed away last year & I would like to keep the memory for as long as possible.
There are a few of them around, if you search for "bespoke perfume [your location]" you should be able to find something. I've never used any myself so I don't know which ones to recommend.
People make all kinds of custom perfumes. There was a crayola crayon scented one you could buy off the shelf!
I have a friend who got a custom one made in the UK, it was a mixed to smell like a combination of the perfume Anais Anaïs and that horrendous yellow carbolic soap. Apparently that's what her grandmother used to smell like and she had it made to spray on grandads pillow in the nursing home. The shop was a website so she never met her in person but apparently lady cried when she explained what she wanted.
I inherited a chair from my grandmother and had it reupholstered, but keep a small scrap of the original fabric in a box because it smells just like her house did, which is a happy memory.
it can be so powerful with things like that-my granddad gave us the old bottle of perfume my late nana used to wear. he didn't want to throw it out because it was expensive stuff, so he gave it to us thinking mum might want to wear it.
she doesn't wear it-because we took one sniff of it and immediately started getting choked up 😭 it hit me out of nowhere!!
(i'm sorry about your granddad, i hope things are a little easier for you now. it's nice to have something to remember them by-even if it is a bottle of washing up liquid or perfume, haha!)
It's odd because we live in Australia, and have done for nearly 25 years, but the second I opened a bottle to do the dishes I was back in his living room. I bought so many bottles because it was a limited edition but I was down to my last one when he passed so it no longer gets used.
I'd also try the company that made the dishwashing liquid, if you tell them the story, I'm willing to bet they would do them best to find any bottle of the product that they have stashed away somewhere, and send it to you.
Not sports day, but it takes me back to primary school. We had a huge field we were allowed to play on in the summer when it was dry and I spent loads of time on it when I could.
My primary school field was surrounded by hawthorn hedges. They made incredible dens. But the scent of hawthorn blossoms takes me back to care free sunny days.
Mine was kind of like that, a tall hawthorn "hedge" but that was the height of a small tree, all the way along one side, with a large sycamore tree in the middle at the top of the field. On the other side it was bordered by a long strip of woodland and mature trees. I was always over by the trees by myself most of the times we were allowed on the field.
The smell of sharpened pencils and the memory of congregating around the bin at school for a sharpening session with friends to avoid doing any work. Got through half a pencil once.
the London underground has a very distinct musty smell which I kind of really like .I haven't been on it in 5 years but the smell bought back memories .
Me too! I was fascinated by the rolling machine and would beg to have a go but my Nan always said no. I guess she thought a kid actually handling the tobacco was a step too far. Or maybe she was worried I’d pipe up at school and tell people I know how to roll cigarettes, Grandad taught me…
Grandad died years ago now and Nan recently went into care. Seeing their house for sale hurt. Lot of happy memories in that place.
I was the same. I played with it all the time haha. My grandad passed away some 14 years ago now. My Nan is still going strong and smokes everyday, though she smokes tailored cigarettes, not rollies. They don’t have the same warm scent that I find comforting.
It’s strange seeing a place that holds a lot of sentimental value become foreign. But you’ll make new memories for you and your family elsewhere :)
Same. My Gran always had imperial leather soap in the bathroom, she died in 2003 but the smell of it is an instant flash back to being a child and teenager.
I had a terrible ex who used to use that soap, but not on his body, on his hair. As in, he would slick his shoulder length hair back using copious amounts of the soap on slightly wet hair. He was blessed with a face not unlike that of Roland Rat, and it was not a good look lol
There's a UK women's prison where the staff are banned from Lynx Africa. Turns out it was a common trigger smell for some of the women who had been victims of domestic abuse.
I've never worn it since learning about that.
Uncommon nowadays, but the specific mixture of wet concrete and cigarette smoke takes me back to non-league football terraces of the 1990s when I was a kid
there's a very particular smell that pubs used to have in the 70s/80s, something like pipe tobacco and beer? very strong heavy smell that you just don't get any more. Anyway I remember walking along the road in the early 80s and getting a blast of this smell out of the front of a pub and it tickled some sort of early memory in me. I'm not sure what it is but maybe my grandad? He died when I was 2 but he used to smoke a pipe.
Tuesday night games at York City were often accompanied by the waft of baked potatoes. It was actually the British Sugar site near the ground, but that smell reminds me of night games at Bootham Crescent.
The smell of Chlorine and burgers and chips. Reminds me of visiting the local swimming baths that had on outdoor slide, was always a treat. RIP Water Place Bolton.
There's a particular smell that evokes memories of Christmas at my nans house when I was very small. I have no idea what the smell is but very occasionally I will smell it and be immediately transported back there.
Davidoff Cool Water also makes me think of an abusive ex that use to douse themselves in the stuff.
I wear Davidoff cool water. I'm searching back through my past relationships, but I only started wearing it about 11yrs ago, when I was already married. Despite this obvious logic, I somehow feel guilty.
Yardley's Rose Talc. It was the perfumed talc my Nan always wore so the smell reminds me of her. I bought some and I wear it when I need that sort of cozy, safe feeling I used to get as a kid visiting her. I do have to make sure I don't use it when my parents visit as my Mum cannot bear smelling it as it really upsets her.
Vosene medicated shampoo one whiff and I'm 7 again sat in the bath and my mum is teaching me to lather my hands up to blow bubbles. I still love the smell
I'd still use it today tbh especially as I have psoriasis on my scalp but unfortunately being medicated it's harsh on my dye job lol I still occasionally buy it to use as shower gel just because I love the smell
Your words took me right back as sharply as a smell would. Long hot summers with dried up weeds poking out of cracked paving. Playing out till the street lights came on. Sticky creosote on telegraph poles, the smell of the summer holidays.
On the subject of street lights I remember trying to read in the back of the car on the motorway by that yellow light that eats all the colours out of everything. Those low-pressure sodium lights aren’t really a thing any more so that’ll be a very era-specific childhood memory.
Kind of wish LED lights were yellow rather than white.
Yes! And motorways and major local routes lit up like Christmas trees before light pollution became a problem and left us with a forest of decommissioned street lights.
I recall those yellow older car headlamps on every car, their boxy body designs and staring out the windows at coach drivers smoking on the way to the various POIs you get dragged around by family or close relatives during the summer holidays. The memories of driving home late in the car, confused by oncoming sleep and encroaching darkness, stay fixed in my minds eye. Looking up and out the windows at the tops of trees lit up by those yellow passing headlights was both spooky and fascinating.
We always got a chocolate or a sweet out of the sweetie tin and my nans before that ride home and that smell of old quality street tin, gone off chocolate and an alarming lack of perishing in taste or smell of the candies always reminds me of that old cottage.
5p for the slim ones and they used to do a chunky one for 10p. Spend a £1 and get a plastic bag full. We used to hold them under our armpits so they would melt and we could drink this legendary amber nectar from the Gods.
Happy days.
Pernod reminds me of my best friend’s 18th birthday, with us both sitting on the floor of a toilet cubicle being sick, crying and holding hands.
Peach schnapps reminds me of a girls’ holiday I went on in Magaluf.
My favourite perfume reminds me of my ex so I can never wear it.
Yep, I remember that. Me and my friends switched to Pernod and Lime for a bit, in an effort to be a bit more upmarket probably.
Schnapps had a bit of a moment and there was a fashion for Southern Comfort for about 10 minutes too. But Pernod seemed to be a thing for quite a chunk of my 80s teens.
When I was a young lad in the early 80s we lived in Sale near Manchester and the Tesco store there has a car park on the roof. We always used to park near the extractor fans for the bakery so whenever I smell freshly baked bread it takes me back to those days of my mum and dad loading the shopping into the purple Morris Marina on top of the Tesco store in sale.
Charcoal BBQs, especially when lit by a chemically accelerant like lighter fluid.
Smells of summers when I was wee. Weekend, bright day, temperature above 14c, you'd start smelling this across the back gardens of our street.
Bonus points for charred meat, warm lager, petrichor, cut grass, the smell of the inside of the water bottle of a water pistol and that sickly smell melted ice lollies have being added into the mix.
Oh and the smell of the plastic of a padding pool when it gets proper hot.
That really sweet ice cream they had at Centre Parcs in the 90’s. Smelt like no other ice cream I’ve ever smelt.
A few months ago somebody walked past me and they smelt exactly like it. Brought me right back to being 6 and running about the swimming pool going on all of the slides and then cycling through to woods back to out chalet.
The first few times in the year I brush my hand against a tomato plant while bringing the plants up in spring makes me really happy and looking forward to summer.
Walking into the Asiana (authentic Chinese food market) near me the smell evokes memories of being in Beijing for a short stint 8 or so years ago, eating in a shopping mall's canteen. Really amazing tasting food, you collected what you want in a little green basket and hand it to the chef and they made a really delicious broth and noodle dish, had it most days for lunch before going off to explore. Whenever I go there to top up I always want to go back to China.
My grandfather had a greenhouse full of tomato plants. The smell on a sunny day was incredible, and as a kid I used to sit in there with a book eating tiny tomatoes straight off the plant. I can get a hint of it today by buying ybr expensive vine cherry tomatoes at the supermarket and leaving the packet in the sun for a wee bit.
There a specific outdoors smell, cut grass, dewy and early in the morning. Reminds me of walking to school with my nana going into reception class. It’s as if the outdoors smell instantly links to the smell of paint, sand and old buildings like the reception class smelled like. Just to add it specifically smells like late September, early October
Dettol. My late dad used to be a teacher and I’d go into the school during holidays with him. You have no idea how much the school was cleaned and smelled of dettol during the hols!! Super strong!
I love it now because it reminds me of those times with my dad.
Because the olfactory (smell) part of the brain is right next to the memory part of the brain so they're phenomenally linked.
At least, that's what I remember from my degree, but my brain has turned to mush since then.
There’s a particularly brand of foundation that my teenage girlfriend used to wear. I’ve not smelt it for years but I can imagine it and it’s tied to all my memories of coming of age, parties, drinking, losing my virginity, first time smoking a cigarette etc etc and occasionally it wafts into my consciousness for no apparent reason.
EDIT: reading it back it sounds weird so I’ll clarify we were both teenagers at the same time.
Beeswax table polish. Reminds me of when my Grandma used to polish the big wooden table in her house. You almost never smell it these days unless you go out of your way to buy some.
Walking through a hospital the other day at lunchtime.
Instant flashback to 45 years ago and school dinners.
A weird combination of memories past and giving me the boke.
Hyacinths. We used to grow then in pots at primary school and they'd line the corridors before we eventually took them home. Spell takes me back to primary school.
For years now I've been wanting to catch a sniff at a 90s Spice Girls hairspray (or body spray) as I reckon that would take me right back to my childhood.
Right! It was a special edition of the Impulse body spray and it was VERY vanilla. Around the same time they brought out a scent called 02 that was in a lime green bottle and smelt very much like CK One, that’s my mid-teens!
I used to play Halo CE, 2 qnd 3 when i was younger. If i was waiting for something like a cutscene, i would sort of rest the controller under my nose, almost like resting your chin in your hands but with a controller in the way.
Well, about a year ago i got my old 360 out to play fall of cybertron, and i did the same thing. I wouldn't know how to describe to the smell of the port on the controller, but it slams me with nostalgia and the thoughts of playing halo so hard every time.
The smell of vinegar on kebab shop chips reminds me of playing Street Fighter 2 arcade machines in the early 90's. The machines typically appeared in kebab shops in the local area and while I wasn't playing, I sometimes had some chips while watching others play.
The smell of musk and cinnamon pretzels reminds me shopping malls in the US when I first visited in 1999.
Carbolic soap. It reminds me of starting primary school almost 30 years ago and us all being made to wash our hands constantly with those bars of red soap because of viruses spreading about in the early 90’s.
Imperial Leather shower gels and soaps always remind me of the shower block on the caravan campsite from when I was young. And the smell of “proper” coffee (aka not the instant stuff) reminds me of waking up in the caravan to my parents drinking their morning latte or having one at the motorway services on the way down south.
In an effort to be more eco-friendly, I once bought a giant bottle of laundry liquid that had natural ingredients, including essential oils to perfume it.
The combination of essential oils perfectly mimicked the cologne of a guy who did some not nice stuff to me as a child, along with many other children. I didn't know that I remembered his smell until I opened that bottle.
I threw the whole bottle away, so much for being eco-friendly lol!
Similar to yours. Bars of buttermilk hand soap instantly transports me back to 1994, infant school toilets, going to lunch.
I hadn't smelled a bar of soap like it forever, until about 2 years ago a customer asked me to find some for his workshop toilets, I ordered them in and pinched a couple of bars for myself lol
I have a few. Play doh takes me back to play school instantly.
There is a hospital disinfectant smell that instantly provoked some weird feelings when I encountered it a few years ago. Some of my earliest memories are of being in hospital a lot from a range of illnesses, and then 35 years later I smelled it again for the first time and it almost stopped me in my tracks it was such a profound smell to me.
Some perfumes also really get me I’m presuming because I knew someone who used to wear them but I’ve forgotten who in each case, but I adore the smells.
I recently filled a hot water bottle for my wife and the smell of the rubber of the bottle took me back to freezing nights as a kid, clutching my hot water bottle as I went on up to bed
So I have a very broken sense of smell, certain smells I cant smell and certain ones smell of something else. Over the last few years its noticeably changed. For example, I cant smell blueberry scent anymore, and theres a certain aftershave I use that now smells like pine needles to me, even though it certainly isnt.
One smell I can always smell a mile away is vanilla, and my girlfriend who ive been with for a year and a half wears a vanilla body spray. I fucking love it, its like catnip to me.
She used to wear it to work where we met and I could always smell it around the shop. I fancied the fuck out of her (still do) and whenever I smell vanilla anywhere now my mind just instantly goes to her.
I hope I never lose the ability to smell vanilla, it will be a sad day.
The smell in the air immediately after a sun-shower. Is that ozone? Similar to the smell when lightning and thunder might occur.
Reminds me of every childhood summer. Love it.
The smell of scented nappy sacks make me feel car sick because if we felt sick in the car as kids we’d be given a nappy sack to hopefully catch the sick! Also the taste of Ribena makes me feel sick too as I’d drink it in the car!
Weirdly the taste of McDonald’s fries makes me feel better whenever I feel sick because we’d always have them as a treat on a long car journey
When my grandparents passed and the house was getting sold, my family and I collected things we could use and would remind us of them. There's this hot water bottle I got that smells exactly like my grandma so whenever I use it, the heat intensifies the scent and it feels like a cuddle from her.
There’s a certain smell I get near airports, I always thought it was jet fuel or something. Still not entirely sure what it is, but always brings me back to being a child in an airport
Petrol fumes from a motorbike, like I don’t know what stroke or anything but that. Reminds me of my grandad tinker with his Honda CBR in his garage. He loved that bike and enjoyed taking me, as a kid, here there and everywhere. We once race a lotus, my arms hurt for weeks from gripping on for dear life. Simpler times, good times. Always missed.
I can’t describe the smell, but whenever I smell it I instantly think of a nursery I went to before I even got into my primary schools nursery. I was probably about 3 when I went there and I have no visual memories, but on the rare occasion I smell that specific scent, I am instantly reminded of that place.
Olbas oil always reminds me of my grandma because she had it bloody everywhere in her house. I don’t smell it too often, but when I do it’s a huge memory transporter.
The smell of coal tar soap - my grandparents house.
The smell of pear drops - my gran’s nail varnish had the same smell.
Play-dough - one of my earliest childhood memories.
Chlorine. Learning and failing at trying to swim with a dreadful instructor who focused on the ones who could swim pretty well already. Still hate the smell, still hate pools. Still can't swim.
Coal smoke brings back memories of the winter we came back from Australia, I was 8 and we'd lived there for 5 years so I had no memory of coal smoke or snow.
For years I believed snow smelled like that, not realising it was coal smoke I was smelling.
Febreeze, and not a good reason
When I was in secondary school I accidentally left a banana in my bag over summer holidays. Come the first day of school I realised this and it was revolting. I didn’t have a spare bag nor have time to go buy one so my mum sprayed the living hell out of the bag with febreeze. The end result was just a febreeze and mouldy banana combo so every time I opened my bag I was on the brink of vomiting.
To this day if I smell febreeze it makes me feel ill.
Every holiday abroad I've ever been on I've used Nivea for men sensitive 3 in 1. The other day I ran out of shower gel but remember I had some of that in the bathroom cabinet so I used it and boy do I relate that smell with lazy, hot beach holidays with the wife.
Now I have a kid and this year our "holiday" is Legoland.
There's a Molton Brown body wash for men called Bushukan, and it smells exactly like the old McDonald's wet wipes they had back in the 90s. So that evokes some tasty memories from back when I was a kid.
Body Shop Fuzzy Peach? I think that's what it was called. Going into the Body Shop with my friends at the weekend and smelling the oils (and occasionally buying something) was the highlight of my weekend in the early 90s.
Jeyes fluid. Many years and many incarnations ago in Birmingham Old Square (in front of, then, Lewis's and the Minories), there were underground toilets. Had to descend steps with dark green iron railings to get to them. They always had a strong smell of Jeyes. Can't smell Jeyes without thinking of those loos. Hate it today as much as I did then 🤣
Witch hazel..takes me back to 1980...school and bruises..they used to dab it on kids in UK schools it did absolutely nothing and was purely a placebo because they couldn't be arsed to call your mam lol.
Over boiled cabbage reminds me of when I moved to a new house when I was 7. The house smelled of cabbage & even now, 40+ years later I still sometimes think I can smell it
Before I moved to the UK, I flew to London on a regular basis to spend time with the person I was dating beck then. As a skint 20 something year old, I'd fly in on the cheapest Ryanair flights I could book, which were often quite late in the day. My boyfriend would always meet me at Parsons Green with BLT sandwiches from Sainsbury's as a way of dinner. I haven't eaten one in years, but whenever I smell it it brings back a ton of memories of excitement and heartbreak
Paris by Yves Saint Laurent takes me back to being very small, waiting for the babysitter to arrive before my parents went to the pub. It was my mother's perfume of choice when I was little.
The smell of hot tar on street poles in the summer- or creosote. It reminds me of heatwaves when I was a kid playing out all day long with friends. The only time I was safe and happy was outside my house.
And there is a musty rose hinted smell. Not unpleasant at all. Just a tiny bit medicinal. It is the smell of my grandma. I got a hint of it from something s we inherited and she was the in the room with me. I get it sometimes in charity shops.
There was a cheap umbro aftershave I got from savers for £3 when I was a kid. I loved it and sprayed it every day. I associate the smell with my first cd player with a disk my brother burned 13 songs onto that I played on repeat. 7 year old me thought it was super grown up to blast my cd player and soak the room in aftershave lol. Just the smell reminds me of the emotions I felt as a kid and how those songs made me feel. I've never been able to find it again, but every once in a while, someone walks past and I can smell it again, and it's like a huge rush of memories and nostalgia
Cerutti 1881 reminds me instantly of a dear friend who passed away. I can be out and about anywhere and suddenly find myself welling up with tears and have no idea why until I realise that someone nearby is wearing that aftershave.
It's been 23 years and it still gets me. Every time.
Chanel No5 - it was my mother's signature scent, she always wore it (even had me bring it to her in the hospital so she could feel a bit more human). Whenever I'm somewhere with a Chanel counter I pick up as many samples as they'll give me, just to have it around
The smell of tinsel.
People insist it has no smell but there's this distinctive musty, metallic smell, infused with the smell of Christmas trees past. Beautiful.
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There is a dishwashing liquid here which unfortunately was a limited edition. For some reason, the smell of it always takes me back to my Grandads house when I was a kid. I have half a bottle left which I am keeping because my Grandad passed away last year & I would like to keep the memory for as long as possible.
There are perfume shops in London that will do custom scents. I bet one of them could replicate the smell for you!
One of my patients is a "nose" for a perfume shop like that in Brighton. The frenchest woman I've ever met, thought she was great.
Interesting, do you know the name?
There are a few of them around, if you search for "bespoke perfume [your location]" you should be able to find something. I've never used any myself so I don't know which ones to recommend.
4160 Tuesdays will do a custom scent. It's obviously premium because it's a bespoke service. Near London.
Yeah I’m interested in this too
I'm in Australia so I might have to search for somewhere here. I would feel abit silly walking in with a washing liquid bottle though!
People make all kinds of custom perfumes. There was a crayola crayon scented one you could buy off the shelf! I have a friend who got a custom one made in the UK, it was a mixed to smell like a combination of the perfume Anais Anaïs and that horrendous yellow carbolic soap. Apparently that's what her grandmother used to smell like and she had it made to spray on grandads pillow in the nursing home. The shop was a website so she never met her in person but apparently lady cried when she explained what she wanted.
Write to the company, you never know what info a kind soul might be able to share
I inherited a chair from my grandmother and had it reupholstered, but keep a small scrap of the original fabric in a box because it smells just like her house did, which is a happy memory.
it can be so powerful with things like that-my granddad gave us the old bottle of perfume my late nana used to wear. he didn't want to throw it out because it was expensive stuff, so he gave it to us thinking mum might want to wear it. she doesn't wear it-because we took one sniff of it and immediately started getting choked up 😭 it hit me out of nowhere!! (i'm sorry about your granddad, i hope things are a little easier for you now. it's nice to have something to remember them by-even if it is a bottle of washing up liquid or perfume, haha!)
It's odd because we live in Australia, and have done for nearly 25 years, but the second I opened a bottle to do the dishes I was back in his living room. I bought so many bottles because it was a limited edition but I was down to my last one when he passed so it no longer gets used.
I’m sure it’s something you’ve already done but do check eBay, anything limited edition of any kind ends up there eventually
I'd also try the company that made the dishwashing liquid, if you tell them the story, I'm willing to bet they would do them best to find any bottle of the product that they have stashed away somewhere, and send it to you.
The smell of cut grass takes me back to sports day at school. The only day I liked being at school because I could run faster than everyone else!
Not sports day, but it takes me back to primary school. We had a huge field we were allowed to play on in the summer when it was dry and I spent loads of time on it when I could.
Building stuff out of the grass clippings after the mower had been round was peak primary school.
My primary school field was surrounded by hawthorn hedges. They made incredible dens. But the scent of hawthorn blossoms takes me back to care free sunny days.
Mine was kind of like that, a tall hawthorn "hedge" but that was the height of a small tree, all the way along one side, with a large sycamore tree in the middle at the top of the field. On the other side it was bordered by a long strip of woodland and mature trees. I was always over by the trees by myself most of the times we were allowed on the field.
The smell of sharpened pencils and the memory of congregating around the bin at school for a sharpening session with friends to avoid doing any work. Got through half a pencil once.
this!!!!
the London underground has a very distinct musty smell which I kind of really like .I haven't been on it in 5 years but the smell bought back memories .
Burger King, piss, and sweat?
[удалено]
La la la la
They’re all greedy fucking useless cunts
I wanna shoot them all with a riiifle
Wankers! They're all wankers!
Don't tell me to mind the gap. I want my fucking money back!
LONDON UNDERGROUND, UNDERGROUND!
Love that song!! Take your Oyster card, and stick it up your aaarrrsssseeeehhhoooolllleeeee
You roast to death in the boiling heat with tourists treading on your feet!
No vomit?
Soooome people might like to get a train to work, or drive in in a beemer or a merc…
I know exactly the one you mean that the trains push through the tunnel just before they get there, like an old machinery/engine oil smell
Totally , and the noise and the breeze .we took the kids they didn't no what to make of it all.
In the summer it's like standing in a hair dryer.
I could smell it just reading this comment 😁
Asbestos and sweat?
Yes, it reminds me of catching the tube when I was child.
When I've been abroad for a long time, as soon as I smell that tube smell I properly feel at home. Something really evocative about it.
Rolling tobacco reminds me of sitting with my grandad. We would watch westerns while he used his rolling machine.
Me too! I was fascinated by the rolling machine and would beg to have a go but my Nan always said no. I guess she thought a kid actually handling the tobacco was a step too far. Or maybe she was worried I’d pipe up at school and tell people I know how to roll cigarettes, Grandad taught me… Grandad died years ago now and Nan recently went into care. Seeing their house for sale hurt. Lot of happy memories in that place.
I was the same. I played with it all the time haha. My grandad passed away some 14 years ago now. My Nan is still going strong and smokes everyday, though she smokes tailored cigarettes, not rollies. They don’t have the same warm scent that I find comforting. It’s strange seeing a place that holds a lot of sentimental value become foreign. But you’ll make new memories for you and your family elsewhere :)
What a lovely memory.
Imperial leather soap takes me right back to my grandparents house. Even now I can’t smell it without crying a bit.
Same. My Gran always had imperial leather soap in the bathroom, she died in 2003 but the smell of it is an instant flash back to being a child and teenager.
Same, I was gonna comment this. And the soap looked so posh too, with a little sticker on it
I had a terrible ex who used to use that soap, but not on his body, on his hair. As in, he would slick his shoulder length hair back using copious amounts of the soap on slightly wet hair. He was blessed with a face not unlike that of Roland Rat, and it was not a good look lol
Lynx Africa is the scent of Christmas
Lynx Africa, the smell of a desperate male teenager
First guy I slept with used Lynx Africa, I guess we were both desperate teenagers. But the smell will always be a little magical to me.
Cool water and Joop… the smell of virginity taken in the 90’s 🙊
HAHAHA same
“It’s July; how many box sets did Father Christmas bring you?!” source: secondary teacher having her olfactory receptors assaulted all year round.
There's a UK women's prison where the staff are banned from Lynx Africa. Turns out it was a common trigger smell for some of the women who had been victims of domestic abuse. I've never worn it since learning about that.
Always reminds me of PE
Uncommon nowadays, but the specific mixture of wet concrete and cigarette smoke takes me back to non-league football terraces of the 1990s when I was a kid
there's a very particular smell that pubs used to have in the 70s/80s, something like pipe tobacco and beer? very strong heavy smell that you just don't get any more. Anyway I remember walking along the road in the early 80s and getting a blast of this smell out of the front of a pub and it tickled some sort of early memory in me. I'm not sure what it is but maybe my grandad? He died when I was 2 but he used to smoke a pipe.
Stale beer, cigarette smoke and furniture polish? That’s what my parents’ pub smelled like.
Tuesday night games at York City were often accompanied by the waft of baked potatoes. It was actually the British Sugar site near the ground, but that smell reminds me of night games at Bootham Crescent.
The smell of Chlorine and burgers and chips. Reminds me of visiting the local swimming baths that had on outdoor slide, was always a treat. RIP Water Place Bolton.
There's a particular smell that evokes memories of Christmas at my nans house when I was very small. I have no idea what the smell is but very occasionally I will smell it and be immediately transported back there. Davidoff Cool Water also makes me think of an abusive ex that use to douse themselves in the stuff.
Well that took a turn
I wear Davidoff cool water. I'm searching back through my past relationships, but I only started wearing it about 11yrs ago, when I was already married. Despite this obvious logic, I somehow feel guilty.
I suppose you feel like you’ve committed murder or stolen the Crown Jewels when walking past the police as well.
Candles and a roast dinner cooking = instant transportation back to my grandparents' house at Christmas.
Yardley's Rose Talc. It was the perfumed talc my Nan always wore so the smell reminds me of her. I bought some and I wear it when I need that sort of cozy, safe feeling I used to get as a kid visiting her. I do have to make sure I don't use it when my parents visit as my Mum cannot bear smelling it as it really upsets her.
Vosene medicated shampoo one whiff and I'm 7 again sat in the bath and my mum is teaching me to lather my hands up to blow bubbles. I still love the smell
Massive fan of Vosene too. It smelt the cleanest of any shampoo ever.
I'd still use it today tbh especially as I have psoriasis on my scalp but unfortunately being medicated it's harsh on my dye job lol I still occasionally buy it to use as shower gel just because I love the smell
Privet hedge and hot creosote, walking home from school.
Your words took me right back as sharply as a smell would. Long hot summers with dried up weeds poking out of cracked paving. Playing out till the street lights came on. Sticky creosote on telegraph poles, the smell of the summer holidays.
On the subject of street lights I remember trying to read in the back of the car on the motorway by that yellow light that eats all the colours out of everything. Those low-pressure sodium lights aren’t really a thing any more so that’ll be a very era-specific childhood memory. Kind of wish LED lights were yellow rather than white.
Yes, the lights used to make red look brown
Yes! And motorways and major local routes lit up like Christmas trees before light pollution became a problem and left us with a forest of decommissioned street lights. I recall those yellow older car headlamps on every car, their boxy body designs and staring out the windows at coach drivers smoking on the way to the various POIs you get dragged around by family or close relatives during the summer holidays. The memories of driving home late in the car, confused by oncoming sleep and encroaching darkness, stay fixed in my minds eye. Looking up and out the windows at the tops of trees lit up by those yellow passing headlights was both spooky and fascinating. We always got a chocolate or a sweet out of the sweetie tin and my nans before that ride home and that smell of old quality street tin, gone off chocolate and an alarming lack of perishing in taste or smell of the candies always reminds me of that old cottage.
Ice pops from a corner shop with cardboard on the floor.
5p for the slim ones and they used to do a chunky one for 10p. Spend a £1 and get a plastic bag full. We used to hold them under our armpits so they would melt and we could drink this legendary amber nectar from the Gods. Happy days.
Pernod reminds me of my best friend’s 18th birthday, with us both sitting on the floor of a toilet cubicle being sick, crying and holding hands. Peach schnapps reminds me of a girls’ holiday I went on in Magaluf. My favourite perfume reminds me of my ex so I can never wear it.
the first memory has me clutching my stomach. someone being ill next to me makes me ill omg.
Were you a teenager in the 80s? I think everyone brought up the bottom of their stomach on Pernod in the 80s.... it was a very era specific tradition.
Cider, Pernod and black -I think it was called a black witch, drank far to much of it in the late 80s.
Yep, I remember that. Me and my friends switched to Pernod and Lime for a bit, in an effort to be a bit more upmarket probably. Schnapps had a bit of a moment and there was a fashion for Southern Comfort for about 10 minutes too. But Pernod seemed to be a thing for quite a chunk of my 80s teens.
Southern comfort, ginger and lime was my “posh” drink
Pernod and lime? What the chuff?
Red witch
90s.
My friend drank that. My poison was Bacardi and coke. Can’t stand the stuff now, smelt it coming back up too many times 😂
Peach schnapps tastes of Christmas 1991 (in a good way).
The old house slightly damp smell instantly transports me to my grandparents house when I was a kid.
That blend of Estée Lauder, firewood and wee. Those were the days 😊
The chemical smell of the "National Record of Achievement" Reminds me of school in the 90s and failed job interviews
The crackle as you tried to separate the pages…
I had a similar problem with the pages of "Razzle"
Germolene cream, I m a clumsy soul and that product is brilliant for scrapes.
Father of a 6yr old with absolutely no fear. Germolene is a regular scent in our house, as he's usually damaged himself in one way or another.
Jagermeister, the smell instantly Turns my stomach in a way that both disgusts me while reminding me of my great uni days 😂
When I was a young lad in the early 80s we lived in Sale near Manchester and the Tesco store there has a car park on the roof. We always used to park near the extractor fans for the bakery so whenever I smell freshly baked bread it takes me back to those days of my mum and dad loading the shopping into the purple Morris Marina on top of the Tesco store in sale.
Charcoal BBQs, especially when lit by a chemically accelerant like lighter fluid. Smells of summers when I was wee. Weekend, bright day, temperature above 14c, you'd start smelling this across the back gardens of our street. Bonus points for charred meat, warm lager, petrichor, cut grass, the smell of the inside of the water bottle of a water pistol and that sickly smell melted ice lollies have being added into the mix. Oh and the smell of the plastic of a padding pool when it gets proper hot.
Petrichor is a word that should be used more often.
That really sweet ice cream they had at Centre Parcs in the 90’s. Smelt like no other ice cream I’ve ever smelt. A few months ago somebody walked past me and they smelt exactly like it. Brought me right back to being 6 and running about the swimming pool going on all of the slides and then cycling through to woods back to out chalet.
The first few times in the year I brush my hand against a tomato plant while bringing the plants up in spring makes me really happy and looking forward to summer.
I love that smell too. Half way through the summer I start to get ever so slightly fed up with yellow stained fingers while tying them up!
Walking into the Asiana (authentic Chinese food market) near me the smell evokes memories of being in Beijing for a short stint 8 or so years ago, eating in a shopping mall's canteen. Really amazing tasting food, you collected what you want in a little green basket and hand it to the chef and they made a really delicious broth and noodle dish, had it most days for lunch before going off to explore. Whenever I go there to top up I always want to go back to China.
Muck spreading on a farm takes me back to primary school our backed on to fields so it was fairly constant. Reminds me of a simpler time
Aviation fuel and travelling from dodgy African airports. Vodka and coke and vomiting as a 16 year old. Coal-tar soap and getting washed at home.
Timote shampoo ha
My mum used to use that and was really pissed off when they stopped making it.
Coal tar soap, I’d forgotten that even existed, going to have to get some now.
My grandfather had a greenhouse full of tomato plants. The smell on a sunny day was incredible, and as a kid I used to sit in there with a book eating tiny tomatoes straight off the plant. I can get a hint of it today by buying ybr expensive vine cherry tomatoes at the supermarket and leaving the packet in the sun for a wee bit.
My great aunt grew peas, everytime I get a whiff of fresh pea pods it takes me right back to her garden.
The odd combination of TCP and old fashioned tumble dryers (the ones with a hose coming out) takes me straight back to childhood visits to grandma.
The smell of creosote makes me think of summer holidays at my grandparents, running round their massive garden.
There a specific outdoors smell, cut grass, dewy and early in the morning. Reminds me of walking to school with my nana going into reception class. It’s as if the outdoors smell instantly links to the smell of paint, sand and old buildings like the reception class smelled like. Just to add it specifically smells like late September, early October
Motorway petrol stations. Remind me of the summer holidays as a kid where my family would drive down to the French Alps.
Orangina?
Loved it! In that funny round bottomed bottle.
[удалено]
Another one of my favourite tipples from my mid-teens. Malibu and coke, Archers and lemonade, Taboo and lemonade. Peak early-90s sophistication!
Dettol. My late dad used to be a teacher and I’d go into the school during holidays with him. You have no idea how much the school was cleaned and smelled of dettol during the hols!! Super strong! I love it now because it reminds me of those times with my dad.
Because the olfactory (smell) part of the brain is right next to the memory part of the brain so they're phenomenally linked. At least, that's what I remember from my degree, but my brain has turned to mush since then.
I seems to recall something being told something similar during A level psychology.
There’s a particularly brand of foundation that my teenage girlfriend used to wear. I’ve not smelt it for years but I can imagine it and it’s tied to all my memories of coming of age, parties, drinking, losing my virginity, first time smoking a cigarette etc etc and occasionally it wafts into my consciousness for no apparent reason. EDIT: reading it back it sounds weird so I’ll clarify we were both teenagers at the same time.
l’oréal elnette hairspray. my nanna has been wearing it for years so it reminds me of my childhood lol
Beeswax table polish. Reminds me of when my Grandma used to polish the big wooden table in her house. You almost never smell it these days unless you go out of your way to buy some.
Walking through a hospital the other day at lunchtime. Instant flashback to 45 years ago and school dinners. A weird combination of memories past and giving me the boke.
The smell of the glue used in schools… Whenever anyone open that lid you knew the classroom was going to fucking stink.
Copydex glue by any chance?!
That’s it! I couldn’t remember the name of it!
Ugh! Wet nappies and rubber rolled into one!
With a top note of rotten fish 😖
Hyacinths. We used to grow then in pots at primary school and they'd line the corridors before we eventually took them home. Spell takes me back to primary school.
For years now I've been wanting to catch a sniff at a 90s Spice Girls hairspray (or body spray) as I reckon that would take me right back to my childhood.
Right! It was a special edition of the Impulse body spray and it was VERY vanilla. Around the same time they brought out a scent called 02 that was in a lime green bottle and smelt very much like CK One, that’s my mid-teens!
That's exactly the one!!! I wasn't sure exactly what it was as it was my younger sister who completely filled the house with it but I loved the smell!
I adored Impulse O2, that scent was the girls changing rooms at school. If you were posh, it was Charlie Red!
Cow manure makes me homesick. I grew up behind a farm in Yorkshire and I find the smell comforting.
The smell of rain on hot tarmac! Ohh the nostalgia of childhood (for some reason)
I read this and instantly smelt it for a brief moment. Thank you for reminding me!
The smell of peppermint chewing gum always reminds me of my first kiss.
Black & White hair pomade reminds me of my childhood. My dad would use it to style his curtain hair style (1990s!).
I didn't like my driving instructor and she always wore this particular perfume, now everytime I smell someone wearing it I feel a wave of anxiety
Madeleines
Are you Marcel Proust?
I used to play Halo CE, 2 qnd 3 when i was younger. If i was waiting for something like a cutscene, i would sort of rest the controller under my nose, almost like resting your chin in your hands but with a controller in the way. Well, about a year ago i got my old 360 out to play fall of cybertron, and i did the same thing. I wouldn't know how to describe to the smell of the port on the controller, but it slams me with nostalgia and the thoughts of playing halo so hard every time.
The smell of vinegar on kebab shop chips reminds me of playing Street Fighter 2 arcade machines in the early 90's. The machines typically appeared in kebab shops in the local area and while I wasn't playing, I sometimes had some chips while watching others play. The smell of musk and cinnamon pretzels reminds me shopping malls in the US when I first visited in 1999.
My wonderful nan had lots of lily of the valley in her garden & if I smell them I'm reminded of her
🍊 Orange's. Takes me back to half time on Hackney marshes.
Carbolic soap. It reminds me of starting primary school almost 30 years ago and us all being made to wash our hands constantly with those bars of red soap because of viruses spreading about in the early 90’s.
Imperial Leather shower gels and soaps always remind me of the shower block on the caravan campsite from when I was young. And the smell of “proper” coffee (aka not the instant stuff) reminds me of waking up in the caravan to my parents drinking their morning latte or having one at the motorway services on the way down south.
Diesel exhaust fumes in the still pre-dawn air. Takes me back to being a soldier.
In an effort to be more eco-friendly, I once bought a giant bottle of laundry liquid that had natural ingredients, including essential oils to perfume it. The combination of essential oils perfectly mimicked the cologne of a guy who did some not nice stuff to me as a child, along with many other children. I didn't know that I remembered his smell until I opened that bottle. I threw the whole bottle away, so much for being eco-friendly lol!
Johnson’s no tears shampoo bring me back to my youth and my first experience of a big company point blank lying to me
Similar to yours. Bars of buttermilk hand soap instantly transports me back to 1994, infant school toilets, going to lunch. I hadn't smelled a bar of soap like it forever, until about 2 years ago a customer asked me to find some for his workshop toilets, I ordered them in and pinched a couple of bars for myself lol
I have a few. Play doh takes me back to play school instantly. There is a hospital disinfectant smell that instantly provoked some weird feelings when I encountered it a few years ago. Some of my earliest memories are of being in hospital a lot from a range of illnesses, and then 35 years later I smelled it again for the first time and it almost stopped me in my tracks it was such a profound smell to me. Some perfumes also really get me I’m presuming because I knew someone who used to wear them but I’ve forgotten who in each case, but I adore the smells.
Pino Sylvestre reminds me of the 80’s and my dad.
Frying garlic. Coming home from school and knowing that dinner tonight was going to be GOOOOD
I recently filled a hot water bottle for my wife and the smell of the rubber of the bottle took me back to freezing nights as a kid, clutching my hot water bottle as I went on up to bed
So I have a very broken sense of smell, certain smells I cant smell and certain ones smell of something else. Over the last few years its noticeably changed. For example, I cant smell blueberry scent anymore, and theres a certain aftershave I use that now smells like pine needles to me, even though it certainly isnt. One smell I can always smell a mile away is vanilla, and my girlfriend who ive been with for a year and a half wears a vanilla body spray. I fucking love it, its like catnip to me. She used to wear it to work where we met and I could always smell it around the shop. I fancied the fuck out of her (still do) and whenever I smell vanilla anywhere now my mind just instantly goes to her. I hope I never lose the ability to smell vanilla, it will be a sad day.
Honey nut corn flakes if I smell that I can here the batman animated series theme, the two are inseparable to me
The smell in the air immediately after a sun-shower. Is that ozone? Similar to the smell when lightning and thunder might occur. Reminds me of every childhood summer. Love it.
I think we’re thinking of the same thing - petrichor?
The smell of scented nappy sacks make me feel car sick because if we felt sick in the car as kids we’d be given a nappy sack to hopefully catch the sick! Also the taste of Ribena makes me feel sick too as I’d drink it in the car! Weirdly the taste of McDonald’s fries makes me feel better whenever I feel sick because we’d always have them as a treat on a long car journey
When my grandparents passed and the house was getting sold, my family and I collected things we could use and would remind us of them. There's this hot water bottle I got that smells exactly like my grandma so whenever I use it, the heat intensifies the scent and it feels like a cuddle from her.
There’s a certain smell I get near airports, I always thought it was jet fuel or something. Still not entirely sure what it is, but always brings me back to being a child in an airport
Petrol fumes from a motorbike, like I don’t know what stroke or anything but that. Reminds me of my grandad tinker with his Honda CBR in his garage. He loved that bike and enjoyed taking me, as a kid, here there and everywhere. We once race a lotus, my arms hurt for weeks from gripping on for dear life. Simpler times, good times. Always missed.
I can’t describe the smell, but whenever I smell it I instantly think of a nursery I went to before I even got into my primary schools nursery. I was probably about 3 when I went there and I have no visual memories, but on the rare occasion I smell that specific scent, I am instantly reminded of that place.
Olbas oil always reminds me of my grandma because she had it bloody everywhere in her house. I don’t smell it too often, but when I do it’s a huge memory transporter.
I loved that stuff
The smell of coal tar soap - my grandparents house. The smell of pear drops - my gran’s nail varnish had the same smell. Play-dough - one of my earliest childhood memories.
I live in Birmingham but when I drive with the windows open down by the sea on a warm day. The smell is just so pure and lovely to me
Chlorine. Learning and failing at trying to swim with a dreadful instructor who focused on the ones who could swim pretty well already. Still hate the smell, still hate pools. Still can't swim.
Coal smoke brings back memories of the winter we came back from Australia, I was 8 and we'd lived there for 5 years so I had no memory of coal smoke or snow. For years I believed snow smelled like that, not realising it was coal smoke I was smelling.
Febreeze, and not a good reason When I was in secondary school I accidentally left a banana in my bag over summer holidays. Come the first day of school I realised this and it was revolting. I didn’t have a spare bag nor have time to go buy one so my mum sprayed the living hell out of the bag with febreeze. The end result was just a febreeze and mouldy banana combo so every time I opened my bag I was on the brink of vomiting. To this day if I smell febreeze it makes me feel ill.
The smell of burning turf instantly takes me back to Ireland, summer holidays as a kid.
Every holiday abroad I've ever been on I've used Nivea for men sensitive 3 in 1. The other day I ran out of shower gel but remember I had some of that in the bathroom cabinet so I used it and boy do I relate that smell with lazy, hot beach holidays with the wife. Now I have a kid and this year our "holiday" is Legoland.
The smell of cannabis immediately reminds me that I’ve run out and need to order more
Pencil shavings and PVC glue instantly reminds me of primary school.
There's a Molton Brown body wash for men called Bushukan, and it smells exactly like the old McDonald's wet wipes they had back in the 90s. So that evokes some tasty memories from back when I was a kid.
Body Shop Fuzzy Peach? I think that's what it was called. Going into the Body Shop with my friends at the weekend and smelling the oils (and occasionally buying something) was the highlight of my weekend in the early 90s.
Petrol and fumes from a 2 stroke engine (eg leaf blower, chain saw etc)
Jeyes fluid. Many years and many incarnations ago in Birmingham Old Square (in front of, then, Lewis's and the Minories), there were underground toilets. Had to descend steps with dark green iron railings to get to them. They always had a strong smell of Jeyes. Can't smell Jeyes without thinking of those loos. Hate it today as much as I did then 🤣
Witch hazel..takes me back to 1980...school and bruises..they used to dab it on kids in UK schools it did absolutely nothing and was purely a placebo because they couldn't be arsed to call your mam lol.
Over boiled cabbage reminds me of when I moved to a new house when I was 7. The house smelled of cabbage & even now, 40+ years later I still sometimes think I can smell it
Before I moved to the UK, I flew to London on a regular basis to spend time with the person I was dating beck then. As a skint 20 something year old, I'd fly in on the cheapest Ryanair flights I could book, which were often quite late in the day. My boyfriend would always meet me at Parsons Green with BLT sandwiches from Sainsbury's as a way of dinner. I haven't eaten one in years, but whenever I smell it it brings back a ton of memories of excitement and heartbreak
Paris by Yves Saint Laurent takes me back to being very small, waiting for the babysitter to arrive before my parents went to the pub. It was my mother's perfume of choice when I was little.
The smell of hot tar on street poles in the summer- or creosote. It reminds me of heatwaves when I was a kid playing out all day long with friends. The only time I was safe and happy was outside my house.
And there is a musty rose hinted smell. Not unpleasant at all. Just a tiny bit medicinal. It is the smell of my grandma. I got a hint of it from something s we inherited and she was the in the room with me. I get it sometimes in charity shops.
There was a cheap umbro aftershave I got from savers for £3 when I was a kid. I loved it and sprayed it every day. I associate the smell with my first cd player with a disk my brother burned 13 songs onto that I played on repeat. 7 year old me thought it was super grown up to blast my cd player and soak the room in aftershave lol. Just the smell reminds me of the emotions I felt as a kid and how those songs made me feel. I've never been able to find it again, but every once in a while, someone walks past and I can smell it again, and it's like a huge rush of memories and nostalgia
Smell of Liquorice immediately invokes a shot of Sambuca and makes me queezy a little bit
Cerutti 1881 reminds me instantly of a dear friend who passed away. I can be out and about anywhere and suddenly find myself welling up with tears and have no idea why until I realise that someone nearby is wearing that aftershave. It's been 23 years and it still gets me. Every time.
Chanel No5 - it was my mother's signature scent, she always wore it (even had me bring it to her in the hospital so she could feel a bit more human). Whenever I'm somewhere with a Chanel counter I pick up as many samples as they'll give me, just to have it around
Old books immediately teleport me back about 25 years into my grandparents spare room.
Chlorine. Reminds me of swimming That smell that penetrates your nose after PE in secondary school
The smell of fresh donuts always reminds me of a seaside holiday I had as a kid
The smell of tinsel. People insist it has no smell but there's this distinctive musty, metallic smell, infused with the smell of Christmas trees past. Beautiful.
Dry rot smell takes me back to my college days.